Prowling Raven
by Erratus Enigma
Summary: A stalker prowls in the night, hiding in shadows, culling the prey until it breaks down completely. And Jinx will understand, finally, that Raven is not someone who is to be trifled with.


**Disclaimer: I do not own Teen Titans. No witty phrases today.**

So, my Muse decided to hit me in the head with this idea, and after writing it down - we don't want to lose any more perfectly useful stories now, do we? - I decided to upload it, though I'm not quite satisfied with it. A short one-shot, featuring a more intense exploration of Raven's dark nature. May not make much sense, though it is...briefly explained at the end how things started.

Aaand this is my excuse for not uploading any of my chapters sooner. I have a very bad problem with deadlines and promises. Sorry.

Onwards!

** IoOoI**

It was night at Jump town. The clouded sky gave away not a single bastion of light, and the city was surrounded in a sheet of pure darkness to be broken only by the occasional flashes of light that slashed the night. It was the perfect time for a hunt.

Jumping yet another rooftop, panting heavily, was a feminine silhouette whose only remarkable feature was the mass of pink falling in waves as she ran. Every time the girl heard something, her once feline eyes now fully round and aware, would pierce the darkness at everything that moved. The problem, for dearest Jinx, is that _nothing_ moved. But she knew. She knew _She_ was behind her, prowling in the shadows, studying her with eyes that would make the Devil himself shiver. She had no idea how close to the truth she was.

Another jump, another hurried look, more apprehension growing. The thief had been running for the past ten minutes, and not a single sign from the mystic Titan.

_Maybe...maybe she gave up, yeah? Yeah, that could be it. Yeah. Right? _Her mind couldn't help it. She wouldn't have it any other way. But just as she was beginning to believe in herself, a dark, slippery _something_ brushed the inside of her mind, making a twisted nest in there and whispering in a voice so dark and wicked that her very eyes retracted momentarily into slits, blinding her to the world and her predator.

_'Wrong.'_

The mercenary would have screamed at the top of her lungs in barely contained fear, if she hadn't crashed head-on on a very hard and smooth surface, cursing the thing with a high-pitched "Damnation!" as she fell hard on her butt.

As her eyes slowly enlarged to take full advantage of whatever light was available, she managed to give her attacker a very, very good look.

A few steps away from the feline mercenary was none other than Raven herself. Her skin was tainted red, featuring iron hard muscles that were flexing in anticipation. Her mouth was completely filled with sharp fangs, and Jinx was completely sure they were more than able to tear her apart easily. From the top of her face, where her big, indigo eyes were supposed to be, there were four slits of the most ungodly red the girl had ever seen. They didn't move, nor did they flinch, but she could feel their gaze upon her body.

"_**Damnation indeed, Jinx."**_ When she spoke, it was not with her usual emotionless voice, but with a rumbling , dual-toned symphony of death and destruction that threatened to break the thief's mind into millions of tiny pieces. The pink-haired girl's body started to shake completely, as her eyes teared up in fear. Her mind was invoking images of her death, each more gruesome than the last as the daemonic visage in front of her tugged at the last drops of her sanity.

"_**What is the matter, Jinx? I thought Jinxes didn't cry."**_ And with that, she laughed, an otherworldly sound that could make milk curd and the day turn into night.

Screaming madly, the zany girl embraced her insane mind with everything she got, betting her own soul against all odds, just like she would have done with anything else. She got up, quickly, and as if afraid that taking a single nanosecond longer than she should would alert the daemoness of her intentions, she jumped from the Roof, heading straight into the dirty alley of the city she had learned to love. The city that would crush her skull and kill her body, but save her soul.

Standing at the edge of the rooftop, Raven did only watch, mildly amused at the minx's attempt at suicide. The girl must have been pretty desperate to try to kill herself just to get away from her. It would have been funny if it wasn't futile.

Just as the candy-haired mercenary was to go _splot_ at Jump's streets, a dark, fuzzy bed of nothing enveloped her whole body, and she could just feel the grasp of a thousand damned souls screaming for her own in a voice tainted by pure evil, clawing at the wall of reality separating their universes and their minds. She wanted to scream so badly, to turn into a ball of tangled hair and fears and cry herself to death, but she couldn't. She had no voice inside the night, and she needed to yell. She had no body inside this dream, and she was ceasing to be. She-

Just as she was beginning to think Death had felt mercy on her eternal spirit, she connected quite hardly against the surface of the rooftop she had just jumped. Staring beside her was a grinning daemon, fiery slits burning her vision.

Coughing her breath out, Jinx turned to face her, desperate to wake up from this hellish nightmare.

"Kill me!", she spat at Raven's feet, having yet another coughing fit, spraying the ground with scarlet goblets of blood. At the new scent, her predator seemed to arch forward, as if to better smell it, and the shadows shifted behind her, taking eldritch shapes of living nightmares. "Kane, Raven! Do it!"

The red skinned hunter seemed to consider it for a few seconds, and then the grin grew wider, showing yet another row of ivory blades.

"_**No. You shall live, so we can continue our little game another day."**_ Said the shadows, the city, and everything in-between. A vortex of darkness appeared behind the mystic Titan, and slowly, her body was engulfed by it, leaving the pink-haired girl alone at the rooftop, shaking and asking Vishnu for salvation, and after reciting His seven hundredth name, she fell asleep, shivering pale skin against the cold stone. And even in her dreams she was chased by Raven, though the outcome had been quite different, and not unpleasant at all. Several hours later, when the brightness of the sun kissed her face, the minx awoke startled, sweaty and with a creeping redness tainting her cheeks. She had hoped for it all to be a dream, but seeing the blood-sprayed floor and the particular place where she had decided to sleep, it couldn't have been.

"Fuck, and all that for a waffle. What the heck would that girl do if I messed with her books?", thought the thief, trying really hard not to imagine the outcome of _that._

**IoOoI**

Well. Though it was really more of Raven's psychological warfare, I do have ideas for a more...physical exploration of her limits. Probably soon. Maybe this week.

DO NOT BELIEVE THAT.

So! If I ever write that, I'm going to put it here, as second chapter.

Also, I'd like to formally apologize to dear Lynx. Really sorry. Very intriguing and amusing reaction, though.

Rate and Review, as usual!


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